New OpenSecrets Feature: Top Lobbyist Donors

If campaign donations facilitate access to power, a select group of Washington lobbyists will be scheduling many meetings on Capitol Hill after the 2012 elections. These deep-pocketed individuals regularly donate the maximum allowable amount of money to federal candidates (currently $117,000 per two-year cycle). Most of this money goes towards congressional candidates, who are presumably the people to whom lobbyists target their most persuasive arguments.

Today, the Center is releasing a new feature, displaying the top 25 lobbyist contributors to federal candidates, parties and outside spending groups.

Even though these top 25 lobbyist donors represent only a fraction of the total number of lobbyists giving to federal candidates, their donation patterns and client bases provide some insight into the lobbying industry’s relationship with electoral politics. With that in mind, we find the following major trends.

Party mattersIt is not unheard of for major donors to give money to both Republicans and Democrats, but lobbyists tend to remain loyal to one party. Only eight of the major lobbyist contributors gave any money to a member of the opposing party, and only four gave more than $5,000. By and large, these major donors are “party people,” something confirmed by Wayne Berman (number six on this list) in a recent interview with Roll Call’s Kate Ackley.

Lobbyists prefer winnersAs the Center has noted over and over, incumbent members of Congress tend to prevail in both the contributions race and the election. In the 2010 election, 23 percent of the total number of itemized campaign contributions from all individuals went to congressional challengers, while the rest went to people running in open seats or to incumbents.

So far in the 2012 election, less than 5 percent of the money these lobbyists are donating to congressional candidates has gone to challengers. Top lobbyist donors even seem hesitant to support candidates for open seats this time around — 89 percent of the money they have donated so far has been directed to incumbents.

Since incumbents tend to hold on to their seats, perhaps these lobbyist donors are betting that a donation will ensure a friendly open door on Capitol Hill. Whatever the motive, the odds are good that a current member of Congress will be there next year, and lobbyists seem keenly aware of that.

All but one of the top congressional recipients of money from the top 25 lobbyist donors are current officeholders. Seven of the 10 are in the Senate, and of the three House members, two hold powerful leadership positions. Only two (Jon Tester and George Allen) are running in races the New York Times considers “tossups” — the other eight races are all solidly or “leaning” in favor of the candidate. Seven are Democrats.

Deep-pocketed lobbyist donors, it seems, are hesitant to back a potential “loser” and even more hesitant to chance an unknown commodity.

The table below shows the top recipients of contributions from the top lobbyist donors in the 2012 election cycle.

Many clients, many checksOnly one lobbyist in the top 25 works directly for a company. The other 24 work for — or in many cases own — lobbying firms, and potentially represent the interests of a wide variety of clients. Combined, the top 25 lobbyist donors represented 516 clients in 2011 and 2012. Excluding the one company lobbyist, that averages out to 22 clients per lobbyist.

Certain industries are well represented by the top lobbyist donors. Not surprisingly, the pharmaceutical industry leads the pack, with 18 of the lobbyists on this list — or nearly 75 percent — representing at least one drugmaker. The insurance industry is represented by 15 people in the top 25, and oil and gas is represented by 14.

Super PACs? What super PACs? Presidential Election? Huh?Although the big stories of 2012 focus on the presidential election and the rise of the super PAC, the top 25 lobbyist donors make it onto the list largely because of congressional and party donations. This is partially because Barack Obama’s re-election campaign refuses to accept donations from active lobbyists (although an occasional donation slips by), but even Mitt Romney has only received $23,000 from the top lobbyist donors.

Similarly, super PACs have received a relatively small amount of money from these donors. However, the surest way to land on the top of the list is to donate to a super PAC. Boyden Gray, the top donor, is first because of two $50,000 donations, one to Restore our Future, the super PAC supporting Mitt Romney, and one to Our Destiny, which backed Jon Huntsman and was largely funded by his father. The next four top lobbyist donors have all given money to one or more super PACs.

But overall, only 7 percent of the money donated by lobbyists on our list has gone to outside groups. Super PACs may or may not be the future of campaign finance, but lobbyists appear to prefer the time-tested method of handing a check to a candidate.

Sarah, who joined the Center in April 2011, is responsible for overseeing the Center's data analysis and research collaborations. She previously worked as the Center's lobbying and revolving door researcher. Prior to joining OpenSecrets, Sarah was a doctoral student at the Ohio State University, where she also taught undergraduate political science courses in political behavior. Her dissertation, entitled "Politicians Behaving Badly: The Determinants and Outcomes of Political Scandal in Post-Watergate America," incorporates both original data collection and political experiments. She received her Ph.D. from Ohio State in 2014, and her B.A. in political science and biology in 2006.

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